A botanical reference guide of morphological terms, plant structures, propagation techniques, and campus flora definitions.
Explore terms organized by botanical structure, morphology, and arboricultural concepts.
Glaucous Having a whitish, grayish, or bluish powdery coating. This feature helps describe plant form, function, or identification. Did you know? The bluish coating on blueberries is a natural wax that helps protect the fruit.
Globose Round, globe-shaped. This term helps record, compare, or interpret plant and site information.
Glumaceous Arranged in glumes. This feature helps describe plant form, function, or identification.
Glume One of the paired bracts at the base of a grass spikelet; a chaffy bract in grasses or sedges. Did you know? Grass identification often depends on tiny bracts such as glumes, lemmas, and paleas.
Gregarious A growth form in which mushrooms fruit in relatively close proximity
Gymnosperm The group of plants having naked seeds, not encased in an ovary. Did you know? Ginkgo is a gymnosperm and a living fossil with no close living relatives.
Habit The general shape of a plant. This term helps explain how a plant grows, survives, spreads, or fits into its habitat. Did you know? Knowing mature habit helps gardeners avoid planting a wide-spreading shrub too close to sidewalks or buildings.
Habitat The type of place or environment in which a plant grows wild
Helicoid Coiled like a spiral. This feature helps describe plant form, function, or identification.
Hemispheric Shaped like half of a sphere. This term helps record, compare, or interpret plant and site information.
The Purdue Arboretum is a collaboration between the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture and Administrative Operations